Web design is less about trying to second guess the robot search engines and more about thinking about the human visitors.

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 17:01:45 +0000

Knowing that I work on the Internet, many people ask me for tips as to how they can get more visitors to their web sites. They explain what they have done so far and usually it is all about technical gismos, address books and different flash techniques, as if they were a solution in themselves.

Most are surprised, therefore, when I look at their problem from a completely different point of view. Web design, in my opinion, is less about trying to second guess the robot search engines and more about looking after the human visitors.

I ask them to imagine that they are a search engine. What would be the criteria that they would adopt to determine whether this site or the other should be put at the top of the list for any particular subject and given a high ranking.

The descriptions and features that they describe often take them to the heart of the web design problem. The web sites that they would give higher priority to are generally the more informative, well-organised and highly respected sites, containing good content and easier accessible information. In other words, they are sites that are good for human beings to visit.

The search engines have one big problem. They are mechanical creatures. They are not human beings. Their biggest problem is that they have to try to identify web sites that will be useful for human beings. To do this, they create a large number of rules which they apply to sites in order to determine their quality. We call these rules the search engine algorithm. The problem, for us, is that we then try to second guess what rules are contained in the search engine algorithm so that we can arrange our sites to be ranked higher in whatever keyword list we are targeting.

But, in doing this, we are making our lives far more difficult than is necessary for we have a built in advantage over the search engines in that we, being human beings, can use our judgment to understand whether a web site design is any good or not. We short circuit the judgement process, simply by looking at the web site design process from a human point of view which is all the search engines are trying to achieve with their mechanistic rules.

But what then do we do to make our site's more popular, looking at it from the human point of view?

Well, another way of thinking about a web site is to imagine the web site as a human being who wants to become popular. The more a human being gets out and makes contact with other human beings, the more they will be talked about, included in discussions and referred to for their particular skills and advantages. Quite simply, the answer to getting known is getting out and meeting other people in the community.

Web sites are exactly the same but the way that they relate to the community is through inward coming links and outward going links. Through their links, they stitch themselves into the web. They become part of the useful fabric. If somebody comes onto your web site and cannot find the information they are seeking, they will be better served if you give them links to other web sites that do provide the information they are seeking. It's like going into a shop you were hoping would provide a particular article but, when you find it does not sell the article, the shop owner is quite happy to point you to the shop that does sell the article you require. Its good manners and good service and will bring you back next time. Good web sites give good links to other quality web sites and in doing so are endorsing these sites to some degree which is helpful for their visitors.

So I say to people who ask me the key to good web site design that it is all about providing good service for your visitors. It is about reaching out to other people in your part of the Internet and being part of the community.

Bye for now

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author and web site design guru)

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Web design is less about trying to second guess the robot search engines and more about thinking about the human visitors.